Acts 3:2

And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; AND A CERTAIN MAN LAME FROM HIS MOTHER'S WOMB - and now "above forty years old" (Acts 4:22). As the Lord Jesus had signalized His power by opening the eyes of a man born blind (John 9:1), so the "virtue" that had now "gone out of Him" as the glorified Redeemer, and that now rested upon His apostolic witnesses endued with the Spirit, displays itself in this first recorded miracle by the healing of a man lame from his birth. WAS CARRIED, [ ebastazeto (G941)] - either 'was wont to be carried,' or...

1-11 The apostles and the first believers attended the temple worship at the hours of prayer. Peter and John seem to have been led by a Divine direction, to work a miracle on a man above forty years old, who had been a cripple from his birth. Peter, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, bade him rise up and walk. Thus, if we would attempt to good purpose the healing of men's souls, we must go forth in the name and power of Jesus Christ, calling on helpless sinners to arise and walk in the way of holiness, by faith in Him. How sweet the thought to our souls, that in respect to all the crippled faculties of our fallen nature, the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth can make us whole! With what holy joy and rapture shall we tread the holy courts, when God the Spirit causes us to enter therein by his strength!...

Verse Acts 3:2. _A - MAN LAME FROM HIS MOTHER'S WOMB_] The case of this man must have been _well known_: 1. from the _long standing_ of his infirmity: 2. from his being _daily exposed_ in a place _so public_. It appears that he had no power to walk, and was what we term a _cripple_, for he was _carried_ to the gate of the temple, and _laid_ there in order to excite compassion. These circumstances are all marked by St. Luke, the more fully to show the greatness and incontestable nature of the miracle. _THE GATE - WHICH IS CALLED BEAUTIFUL_] There are different opinions concerning this gate. Josephus observes, Bell. Jud. lib. v. cap. 5, sect. 3, that the temple had _nine_ gates, which were on every side covered with gold and silver; but there was one gate which was without the holy house, and was of Cor

LAME FROM HIS MOTHER’S WOMB - The mention of this shows that there was no deception in the case. The man had been always lame; he was obliged to be carried; and he was well known to the Jews. WHOM THEY LAID DAILY - That is, his friends laid him there daily. He would therefore be well known to those who were in the habit of entering the temple. Among the ancients there were no hospitals for the sick, and no alms-houses for the poor. The poor were dependent, therefore, on the Charity of those who were in better circumstances. It became an important matter for them to be placed where they would see many people. Hence, it was customary to place them at the gates of rich men Luke 16:20; and they also sat by the highway to beg where many persons would pass,...

EXPOSITION ACTS 3:1 _Were going up _for _went up together, _A.V. and T.R. PETER AND JOHN. The close friendship of these two apostles is remarkable. The origin of it appears to have been their partnership in the fishing-boats in which they pursued their trade as fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. For St. Luke tells us that the sons of Zebedee were "partners with Simon," and helped him to take the miraculous draught of fishes (Luke 5:10). We find the two sons of Zebedee associated with Peter in the inner circle of the Lord's apostles, at the Transfiguration, at the raising of Jairus's daughter, and at the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. But the yet closer friendship of Peter and John first appears in their going together to the palace of Caiaphas on the ni

AND A CERTAIN MAN, LAME FROM HIS MOTHER'S WOMB,.... He was born so; his lameness came not through any disease or fall, or any external hurt, but from a defect in nature, in one of his limbs, or more; which made the after miracle the more extraordinary: and he was so lame that he WAS CARRIED; he could not walk of himself, or go, being led, but they were obliged to carry him: WHOM THEY LAID DAILY AT THE GATE OF THE TEMPLE; it had been a common usage, it may be, for years past, to bring him every day, at prayer time, and lay him at the gate of the temple where the people went in; hence he was well known by the people, and to have been of a long time lame, even ever since he was born; so that there could be no imposture in this case: and it was at the gate of the temple he lay, WHICH IS CALLED BEAUTIFUL; which some think was the gate Shushan, which was the eastern gate of the mountain of...

Acts 3:1. _Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour._ Peter and John seem to have been linked in closest friendship. Peter had been brought back by John when he was almost despairing after having denied his Master. John lovingly found him out, and made him his associate; and now they «went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer.» Observe, here, how very sweetly the Old Testament dispensation melts into the new. The Temple was no longer what it had been before; the type was of no further use now that the great Antitype of the Temple had come; yet these apostles still went up to it at the hour of prayer. There are some men who are great at destroying. It will be time to destroy the old when the new is quite ready; and even then, it may be very possible to let the darkness gradually melt away into a twilight, and so the day...

ACTS 3:2 tij Ropes argues (_in loc._) that the addition of ivdou, (before tij) in D itp vgms syrp “may be original, since it is more Semitic.” On the other hand, however, in this instance as well as in the two others in Acts where codex Bezae introduces ivdou, ( Acts 2:2; Acts 13:47) the explanation may well be that it was a Jewish Christian who prepared the Western text of Acts....

CHAPTER 3 _ 1. The Healing of the lame Man (Acts 3:1)._ 2. Peter's address and appeal (Acts 3:12). The lame man, forty years old, at the gate called Beautiful is the type of the moral condition of the nation, like the impotent man whom the Lord healed (John 5:1). Israel with all its beautiful religious ceremonies was helpless, laying outside with no strength to enter in. Peter commands the lame man in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth to rise up and to walk. He is instantly healed. He then walked and leaped and entered through the gate as a worshipper into the temple, praising God. This great miracle was wrought as another evidence to the unbelieving nation that Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had rejected and crucifi

EXAMPLE OF THE WORKS OF THE APOSTLES. The cure of lame persons is frequently spoken of in the Synoptic Gospels, as a mark of the Messianic age; but no such cure is there recorded. Paul deals with a similar case at Lystra (Acts 14:8). The apostles generally, but not invariably, go in pairs, as Luke 10:1 prescribes. So Peter and John here (_cf. Acts 8:14_) go for their devotions to the Temple at 3 P.M., the hour of the evening sacrifice. In the following narrative it is Peter only who acts and speaks. At the gate called Beautiful, possibly the same as Nicanor's gate on the E. side of the Temple, and the favourite entrance, they find a man congenitally lame. He asks alms: they ask his whole attention, which he gives them. Peter cannot give h